A fugitive whose original sentence for crashing his Cadillac Escalade into the vehicles of pursuing federal marshals was deemed too lenient by an appeals court was re-sentenced Monday to more than 17 years in a federal penitentiary.
Tywan Williams, of Durham, N.C., was shot in the eye while trying to elude federal marshals in the January 2007 incident in Sandy Springs.
Convicted by a federal jury on Nov. 19, 2008, Williams initially had been sentenced to 10 years in prison for using deadly force against the officers.
But in December 2010, the federal appeals court in Atlanta ordered him to be sentenced again. The court said Williams had committed perjury and should not have been given credit for accepting responsibility when he fought the charges at trial.
U.S. District Judge Robert L. Vining Jr. re-sentenced the 33-year-old Williams to 17 years 6 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release during a hearing Monday in Rome.
“This defendant, who was wanted for a homicide in North Carolina, chose to resist arrest with all of his might by using his vehicle as a deadly weapon to repeatedly assault and endanger the deputies who were closing in on him,” U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said in a news release.
According to prosecutors, Williams was wanted in connection with a 2005 homicide in Durham.
On Jan. 12, 2007, officers of the Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force spotted Williams at a BP gas station at 5500 Northside Drive, Sandy Springs. Officers used their own vehicles to block Williams’ 2007 Cadillac, but the suspect rammed marshals’ Dodge Durango, Ford F-150 and Ford Expedition and escaped onto Northside Drive.
With authorities in pursuit, Williams drove the wrong way down a one-way street and got on to an entrance ramp to I-285 westbound. A deputy U.S. Marshal used his own vehicle to maneuver beside Williams, but the fugitive slammed his Cadillac into the deputy’s vehicle and tried to push it down an embankment into oncoming traffic on I-285.
The deputy counter-steered and fired shots into Williams’ vehicle, hitting the suspect in the eye. The Cadillac stopped at the bottom of the ramp, and Williams was taken into custody.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Marshals Service and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bret R. Williams.
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